World Health Day 2017 marked in Hanoi

NDO – “Let’s talk to prevent and combat depression” was the theme of a meeting held by the Health Ministry (MOH), the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) at the Doan Thi Diem Secondary School in Hanoi on April 7 to mark the World Health Day 2017 (April 7).

Addressing the event, Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long noted that depression was a serious health problem in Vietnam as also globally.

Care for mental health has received increasing attention in Vietnam over the past years. However, depression prevention and control activities in particular are facing numerous difficulties and challenges, with interventional programmes only deployed on a small scale and most of the people lacking moderate knowledge about this kind of disease, he added.

The MOH considers depression a priority in its mental health care programme, Long said, stressing the need for the health sector to boost the dissemination of depression-related knowledge so that the people could be fully aware of the disease as well as its symptoms for timely treatment, and know how to support and create an equal environment with no discrimination for those with mental disorders.

According to the health official, students and teenagers are the ones at high risk of suffering depressive disorder and schools play a very important role in educating and caring for their health.

The MOH asked the MOET to direct educational institutions to strengthen communication and education about health issues and set out specific regulations and instructions to help students lead a healthy lifestyle, strengthen physical activities and actively participate in collective activities to support one another.

As estimated by the WHO, about 4% of Vietnam’s population suffer from depressive disorders. The MOH encouraged people to talk with others, particularly the reliable ones, hailing this as the simplest measure to prevent and treat depression. People are also advised to actively participate in sport and physical activities and avoid using alcoholic and addictive substances.